I Won't Give Up
by LittleBitNerdy
Summary: 'Well I won't give up on us/Even if the skies get rough/ I'm giving you all my love/ I'm still looking up' Sequel to Stay with me. Riley has underwent major surgery, that may change everything about her and her life. How will she and Lucas ever go back to the way things were if she doesn't know who he is?
1. Chapter 1

I won't give up chap 1

 **This is going to be a fairly short chapter, with a long authors note at the end. Read to the end of the A/N please! Sorry this took forever, to write, but, here you go!**

'If I don't remember you after all this is done, maybe you should try to forget me'

'…Maybe you should try to forget me.'

'…Forget me'

The words Riley wrote had been running through Lucas's mind since he read them over two hours ago.

'Forget me' She had said in the note. He shook his head again. He couldn't. He finally knew just what she was feeling, what she really thought about him. She had wanted to spend her life by his side! He had felt this since even before their first date, and he knew she liked him, but he never knew how serious she was. He couldn't just forget her and walk away after learning how she felt. He couldn't just leave, Riley was his everything!

For the past two hours, Lucas had been pacing around the hospital waiting room, reading and rereading the letter. Some of the time he was crying, sometimes he felt like he wanted to scream. All he really wanted was to know if Riley was ok.

Lucas's footsteps had practically worn a hole in the linoleum waiting room floor. He ran his fingers through his already disheveled hair. He felt like ripping it all out of his head as he sighed in frustration.

"When is she going to be out of there?!" Lucas's voice cracked as he tried to keep from crying.

"Honey, the surgery was supposed to take around 5 hours, but they have to keep her under for at least a day to make sure her brain is responding properly to treatment," Topanga looked at him sympathetically. She had cried just as much as Lucas had paced, and her eyes were red and puffy.

Lucas looked around at everyone in the room. Cory sat rubbing Topanga's back, seemingly calm, though as Lucas focused on his face, it was visible that tears had been shed. Maya was asleep on Josh's shoulder, because Shawn went outside for air over an hour ago and hadn't come back. Maya had tried to be strong, but after the first half hour, she snapped. She was screaming and sobbing and beating on Shawn's chest. Eventually Shawn couldn't handle much more, and Maya was handed off to Josh, and somehow he talked Maya into calming down, and she started to fall asleep. She had been asleep for about 45 minutes. Farkle was just kind of sitting, with his knees pulled up to his chest. He had been spewing obscure facts about absolutely nothing.

"The average human will eat approximately 8 spiders while sleeping. Crocodiles cannot stick their tongues out. Almonds are a member of the peach family…" Farkle had been quietly chanting like this for over an hour.

All of a sudden, it seemed to Lucas that the walls of the already confining hospital were suffocating him. Maybe it was the situation, or maybe it was the emotion. All Lucas knew was that he had to get out of that room and fast.

He left the room and started running through the halls of the hospital. He had no clue where he was going, but that didn't matter to him. He turned a corner, and collided with a massive security guard. The man was tall and as hard as a rock. So much so that the young football player fell backwards onto the ground.

The man offered a giant beefy hand to the boy. "Where you headed in such a hurry there kid?"

Lucas grabbed the mans hand and was hoisted up so fast it nearly gave him whiplash. "Anywhere but where I was." Tears sprung to the teen's emerald eyes. He planned to play tough, but he felt safer around this man than he probably should have.

"Something wrong back there? By the way, I'm Dennis." The man offered. His hand to Lucas again, this time aimed for a handshake.

"Lucas." The boy said. He then recapped everything that had gone on in the past week, even telling the man a few stories about his beloved girlfriend.

"Lucas, lemme tell you something. It sounds like you and Riley really like each other." Lucas nodded as Dennis spoke. "What you guys have is rare, a relationship like yours doesn't happen everyday. You can't give up on her just because a little something got in your way. You two have something special, and even if she asks, you can't ever leave her. Believe me, I was in a similar situation, and there isn't a day that I don't regret waking away. You can never walk away from something like that. You got me Lucas?"

"Yeah Dennis. Thanks." Lucas smiled a little bit at the man.

"No problem kid." Dennis walked around the corner, back to his job.

Lucas immediately turned around and slowly started to find his way back to the waiting room, feeling just little bit more optimistic.

 **Alright guys, there is your first chapter of I Won't Give Up! Tell me what you thought! This is going to be a super long authors note, so I need you to read this all! To the end! Cuz we have a lot of catching up to do.**

 **First off, I WON THE STORY CONTEST! You know, the contest that Stay With me was entered in? Yeah, that one! Be sure to head over to cowgirlangel95's page and check out my one-shot prompt that she wrote. Thank all of you guys for helping me and supporting me through the wonderful journey I call my story, and now I want you guys to help me through this one. I would love y'all forever if we could make it to 100 for this story maybe...?**

 **If there is anything you guys think should happen over the course of this fanfiction, don't be afraid to speak up. I love hearing your suggestions.**

 **Also, I have a couple one shots half written. Do you think I should post them?! One is a Markle, and the other is a prank Riley shot. Tell me whether or not I should post them...**

 **Finally, GIRL MEETS TEXAS! You don't have to read this part but if you want to go ahead. I'll repeat, GIRL MEETS TEXAS! Can't wait for that! I'm losing my mind over it and my friends all think I'm crazy... Lol oh well...**

 **LittleBitNerdy out, peace!**


	2. Chapter 2

I won't give up chap 2

 _Previously..._

 _'Lucas, lemme tell you something. It sounds like you and Riley really like each other." Lucas nodded as Dennis spoke. "What you guys have is rare, a relationship like yours doesn't happen everyday. You can't give up on her just because a little something got in your way. You two have something special, and even if she asks, you can't ever leave her. Believe me, I was in a similar situation, and there isn't a day that I don't regret waking away. You can never walk away from something like that. You got me Lucas?_

 _"Yeah Dennis. Thanks."'_

lllllll

Lucas thought about what the man, Dennis, had been talking about on his long walk back to the waiting room, where the rest of his friends sat. Dennis was right. Lucas couldn't just let Riley go, even though she had asked to be forgotten.

He honestly hoped that she would still remember him. In his opinion, it would've been easier for the both of them, and the rest of the group for that matter. But even the dreamer had given up hope. Her letter to him proved it. Lucas didn't know what he was going to do if she recovered as a completely different person.

llllllll

Soon enough, Lucas found his way back to where everyone was. While he was in the halls, Maya had woken up, her face red and blotchy. He sat down next to her, because he knew this whole thing was probably just as hard for her than it was for him. He wrapped his arms around her, embracing her awkwardly, like Riley usually did. She rested her head on his broad shoulder, like she did with Riley at the bay window all those times.

The problems solved at that window, at the time were major issues, now seemed minor compared to the inevitable challenges loomed ahead of them.

"I just don't want anything to change." Maya said quietly, her voice cracking.

"It won't Maya. They said she'd remember eventually. Then everything will go back to exactly the same way it was." Lucas said, even though he knew that change was unavoidable.

"Please don't sugar coat this Hop-Along. Things are going to change and you know it." Maya snapped, suddenly fed up with all the lies people had been feeding her over the past few days. _'Everything will be_ _ok,_ ' they told her. _'Riley will come out of that surgery fine and all will be normal,'_ they had said. _'Nothing is going to break your friendship'_. She knew well enough that even when she did recover, things would be different.

Maya did learn to hope for things in life, but this, this wasn't the kind of situation where the ending would be perfect and sunshiny. That's what upset her the most. Without her good influence she could go back to being that girl, the girl who set off fire alarms, the girl running wild in the hallway, who's rebellion could easily control her, the girl without light in her life. She could go back to being the girl who hoped for nothing, and she didn't want to be that girl again.

"I know Maya. I just wanted to make you feel better. I want to believe myself, make myself feel better about this too. This isn't easy on me either! This isn't easy on any of us. Look around Maya! Everyone here is an emotional wreck!" He gestured towards everyone sitting in the waiting room, from Farkle, who was still rocking, to Cory, who was staring straight ahead at nothing. "Look around you Maya! Everyone has given up! I just want to believe that things will be ok, even if I know they won't be! I don't know about you, but I don't want to give up!" Lucas started to get mad at Maya.

Maya's eyes widened and teared up. She didn't know why Lucas was so mad, but she didn't like it.

"I'm sorry Lucas, I just..." She paused.

"No Maya, I'm sorry. I'm sorry about this, I just - I just- augh I don't know... It all hurts, it hurts so bad Maya. I- I love her. I didn't tell her that enough, and I can't tell her now!" Lucas went from angry to crying in a matter of seconds.

"Lucas she knew. And it's not like she will be gone forever." Maya said, now feeding Lucas one of the sugar coated phrases she was so sick of hearing. She cringed at herself before continuing. "She'd come home to the bay window after a date and gush about how much she loved being with you, how much she loved you."

"She did?" Lucas looked at her with wide eyes.

"Of course she did Lucas. She really loves you."

llllllll

About an hour later, Riley was still in surgery. Lucas didn't think he could possibly stand the white walls of the waiting room anymore. So he left. He was going to come back of course, but for now, there was someplace else he would rather be. He walked onto the streets and down into the subway station, hands in his pockets. He flashed his subway pass and boarded the train headed to Greenwich Village.

After leaving the train, he walked to Riley's apartment building, and walked around the side to the fire escape. He quickly pulled himself up and onto the ladder, then climbed until he reached the platform covered in colorful flowers in even more colorful pots. He knew that even in New York, Riley always kept her window unlocked. Lucas wasn't particularly sure how he as going to open it until he noticed the window was open half a centimeter, as if someone rushed to shut it and never fully got it. He wedged a finger underneath the crack and pulled upwards. As always the window slid right open.

He climbed onto the bench and sat down, somehow comforted immediately just by sitting there. But, he wasn't here just to sit even more. Her parents had been here, because the purse she carried and the dress she had worn on the night of their date was folded on the dresser.

Lucas knew it was rude, but he picked up the silver purse and looked at the contents. He grabbed her phone before shutting the bag again.

He turned on the iPhone 6 Riley saved up almost a year's worth of babysitting money to get. He smiled widely at the lock screen, which was a selfie they had taken a few months ago when the cherry blossoms in Central Park. He had kissed her cheek right before she snapped the picture. She scrunched her nose in surprise, but you could almost see the smile about spread across her face. Lucas loved that picture. It was one of her favorites too.

It was almost too hard for him to look at. The picture broke his heart because he knew he may never get that Riley back. He stared at the picture through teary eyes.

It was then that Lucas knew he would never love anyone In the way he loved Riley. He knew then that the love he felt for her was like nothing else he would ever feel for the rest of his life. He knew for sure then, that he had fallen deep into love with Riley.

llllllll

 **Ok, first off, I will apologize for the lllllll instead of legit lines, the line tool wasn't working right. Also, sorry for any spelling or grammar issues. Spell check can be horrible sometimes. Beefy fingers and iPhones don't always work out very well...**

 **Second, thanks to everyone who faved, followed or reviewed last chapter, you guys are the best! Even those who read it, but didn't do any of the above, you still rock! Virtual hugs and food for everyone! If you review this chapter, I will bake virtual cookies and virtually hand deliver them.**

 **Thirdly, TEXAS! That was... Well let's just say I was watching the episodes on my phone while the rest of my family was alseep, so I had to bite my finger to keep from screaming. There were teeth marks in my thumb! I swear it bruised! Also, I can't wait for 'The Forgiveness Project'! Anyone with spoilers for that, PM me! Please!**

 **Also, don't own GMW, not a good enough writer to do that... Lol I wish.**

 **LittleBitNerdy out, peace!**


	3. Chapter 3

I won't give up chap 3

 _I'm lying in a field. The sky is blue, with pink, fluffy clouds. I just lay there. I don't want to move, and even if I did, I don't think I could. Something is keeping me here, ensuring somehow that I lay safely in the soft grass below me. I didn't fight it though. Somewhere I hear a wind. No, not a wind. Talking. People talking. People I don't recognize talking. It sounds like very quiet voices. As I listen more, they get louder, to where I can even make out some of the words. Weird commands, none I really understand._

 _Every once in a while my head starts to hurt._

 _One time it hurts so bad I can't breathe and my vision starts to get blurrier and the pink clouds and blue sky fade away. Something is pulling me downwards, to where the green grass has faded away to cold black darkness. I try to scream, and pull myself out of the dark. It doesn't stop pulling though. No matter how hard I try to pull against the dark, it keeps dragging me down._

 _Realizing there is nothing I can do to escape, I squeeze my eyes shut against the pain and darkness that has now surrounded me._

 ** _I think that maybe I am dying._**

 _For what feels like forever, the darkness overtakes me. The pain has disappeared and I feel nothing but the darkness. I start to feel serene as I feel everything in me involuntarily go still and relaxed. I let out the deep breath I had been holding in, in no sort of rush to take in another one._

 _Then slowly the cold darkness fades away, and the sky and clouds come back. I start to hear the voices again, and the pain is back, this time only a dull thudding behind my ear._

 _After what feels like forever the voices stop. It gets very quiet. The clouds in the sky haven't moved at all. Neither have I. I close my eyes and sleep there, in the grass a place I don't even know the location of._

After _another stretch of time, I heard more voices. These ones sound a lot different than the ones before._

 _I hear people telling me to get better, stay strong and that I'll be ok._

 _I don't understand why I need to stay strong or get better or why I'm apparently not okay but I'm going to be. I don't even remember why I'm in this field or how I got here._

 _Sometimes I see people walking towards me. They sit so they are level with me. My grass now serves as a platform so I am even with the people sitting around me._

 _I look over and see a man waking towards me. He looks familiar. Squinting harder I realize who he is. He kneels next to my head and lovingly plays with the hair on the side of my head that isn't seriously throbbing. He gently pressed his lips to my forehead before he spoke._

"Baby girl. I never thought I'd see you like this. You were also so perfect in my mind, it was hard to accept you were sick. You did so well with everything that happened before this, these machines became you. When they told me your heart stopped on the operating table, Riley, my heart stopped too. Everyone's did.

The doctors said that they put you into the coma to save you. They said that you were responsible for getting yourself out. I hope you pull yourself out of this soon Riley. We all miss our Smiley Riley."

 _I felt him squeeze my hand. I was crying now, and I felt one of his tears land on my nose. I tried to squeeze back but my muscles wouldn't cooperate._

"Riley, I love you so so so much, I just want you back with me."

 _By now I was sobbing. No way to tell him I loved him too. I screamed at the top of my lungs, knowing that even if I tried, no one would hear._

 ** _"DADDY!"_**

 _I sobbed, my cries and screeches now sounding more like a rabid animal. I didn't recognize my own voice. He continued to sadly brush my hair gently back with his fingers._

 _He didn't hear me._

 ** _"Daddy I love you too."_**

* * *

 **Shorter than usual, oh well. High on quality I guess.**

 **Guys you made out so well! My birthday and you get the present! A chapter! Even an emotional one! This was obviously from Riley's point of view, and originally this was going to be a Rucas centric chapter, but my fingers told me otherwise. They said this would be emotional and they delivered. Yay fingers!**

 **As always, reviews follows and favorites are welcome and greatly appreciated! I love it when you tell me what y'all think!**

 **LittleBitNerdy out, peace.**


	4. Chapter 4

I won't give up chap 4

Lucas looked down at the curly headed boy sitting on his lap. Auggie had been watching cartoons on his tablet, but fell asleep soon after the show started. Lucas knew that the young boy had been on a weird sleep schedule this week, bedtimes an hour or more later than usual, because hospital visiting hours ended at 9 for everyone but whoever was spending the night by Riley's side. Lucas had stayed the past two nights, and sleep wasn't common for him much anymore. The stress and the uncomfortable plastic chairs that had been his bed for the past 2 days had taken quite the tole on him, and he wasn't getting much sleep either. Auggie had started going back to school Wednesday, Alan or Amy getting him ready, dropping him off at the school, and picking him up afterwards. Cory was forcing Maya, Farkle and Lucas to go back to school on Monday, and Lucas kind of agreed, they had missed almost two weeks of school right before their freshman graduation and finals, although he didn't particularly want to go back. Today was Saturday, which meant he only had the rest of the day to spend with her. Sunday's were church days for him, and on church days there was a mandatory family dinner. Lucas's parents were forcing him to come along this week since Riley wasn't really doing anything. The dinner always took most of the day and visiting hours in the hospital ended a few hours early on Sunday's.

He felt Auggie start to stir and wake up. He took off his headphones and set his tablet down, but the tired boy still rested his head on Lucas's chest.

"Hey Augs, you wanna go down to the gift shop?"

The drowsy boy was suddenly a lot more awake.

"Can we got to the toy store I saw this morning?" Auggie looked at the teen with excited eyes.

Lucas glanced over at Cory, who was pretending to read some pamphlet while secretly watching everyone in the room, including the interactions between Lucas and Auggie. Cory nodded his approval and Lucas looked at the boy who was standing eye level to him.

"Sure, why not bud." Lucas said, standing up and stretching his legs and arms with a yawn. Over the weeks Riley had been in the hospital, and for a month or so before the incident, Auggie and Lucas had been getting closer, and they formed a brother-like relationship, like the one between Auggie and his uncle Josh.

As the two began to walk out of the room, Cory stopped Lucas and handed him a 50 dollar bill.

"He's been doing so good this week, considering the circumstances. I think he deserves a little treat." Cory said, smiling at Lucas. His smile quickly turned into a glare, and his eyebrows scrunched up. "Just because I trust you with my son doesn't mean I'm going to trust you with my Riley when she wakes up. Don't get any ideas there Texas."

"Don't worry sir, I don't have no ideas sir." Lucas said hastily, standing straighter and saluting to the man he had always feared as much as or more than his own father and mother.

"Hmph," Cory grunted. "Obviously Harper has taught you nothing about grammar."

Lucas opened his mouth to respond, but Auggie started to pull his arm.

"Come on Lucas, let's go!" Auggie started to push Lucas towards the hallway.

Lucas was surprised by how strong the skinny 7 year old was.

"Alright, alright I'm coming!" Lucas started walking forwards, and Auggie jumped onto his back. Caught off guard, the teen stumbled a bit but regained his balance. He started jogging down the hallway, Auggie's arms wrapped tightly around his neck.

They skidded to a stop in front of the elevator, Auggie laughing hysterically.

Before they knew it, they were down on the crowded streets of New York. The toy store was a few blocks away, and thankfully Lucas had been there when his 4 year old niece visited a few months before.

They arrived at the store a few short minutes later, and Auggie flung himself off Lucas's back, nearly falling back onto the sidewalk.

"Woah Auggie calm down." Lucas laughed at the boys enthusiasm and watched him run into the store. Lucas stood on the sidewalk before realizing that he probably shouldn't let Auggie run unsupervised through the store.

Lucas opened the door to the family owned toy store and glanced around in awe. He'd been here before but his niece beelined to the girl section so he never really got a chance to look at the stuff in the front of the store. Lucas would've loved all the toys in this store when he was younger. There were train tracks with running trains on them suspended from the ceiling, and there was a large table immaculately adorned with a train set and minuscule models of old time New York.

Lucas found Auggie staring longingly at a Pirate themed Lego set.

"What did you find Augs?"

"A Pirate ship Lego set, duh." Auggie said, not taking his eyes off the set.

"Do you want it Auggie? We could build it when Riley gets better. She loves building with you." Lucas said, thinking of the many times Riley called Lucas and or Farkle because she couldn't figure out a simple Lego set. No matter how silly it seemed, Lucas loved doing playing with Auggie's Legos.

"No that's okay Lucas." Auggie said sadly. "I want Riley to help me pick out a set. Sorry Lucas, but Riley comes first when it comes to Legos."

"I get it Auggie." Luca said, putting the set down and smiling sadly down at the boy who reminded him so much of Riley it wasn't funny.

"Let's keep looking though. Maybe we can find some other cool stuff!" Auggie said, his seriousness fading into a silly grin.

He started walking through the store, following Auggie wherever he decided to go. They had stopped several times to look at several different toys and games, but no matter how many times Lucas told him he would buy the toy he always set it back down on the shelf, saying something about Riley before walking away.

Near the back of the story Auggie didn't look nearly as excited as he did before the trip had started. Lucas knelt down in front of Auggie.

"Is something wrong Augs?" He questioned the buy, who's behavior had been slightly off while they were shopping.

"Yeah," Auggie answered.

"Do you wanna talk about it?" Lucas really wanted to help Auggie. He felt as close to this boy as he was to Riley. He didn't like the normally bubbly boy upset.

"Lucas, Riley is going to change isn't she? She's not gonna wanna play pirates with me and Maya, she isn't going to tell me stories about mom, or dad or what happens in Rileytown anymore, is she? She isn't gonna want to ride the cyclone coaster with me and dad, and she is going to eat mom's scrambled eggs because she forgot about Amanda McScrambleFace, isn't she Lucas? She told me she was going to forget a lot of stuff. Everything is going to be different now isn't it? Because it had to change!"

Lucas enveloped the now crying 7 year old a hug, tears now streaming down his own face at the sight of the distraught boy.

"Yeah Augs, it is going to change," Lucas pulled away from the embrace and looked into the boys eyes. "But your sister said once that change fills her pockets with pennies of uncertainty. But you know what, you can do good things with pennies, and pennies can be good things. Change can be a good thing too, Augs."

"So does that mean you think everything is going to be ok?"

"Yeah Auggie, I think it is. I think everything is going to be ok." Lucas sighed, trying to convince himself and Auggie that things were really going to be ok.

* * *

 **(A/N) Sorry for such a long wait guys, I really am. I'm gonna try to update better from now on, even though softball starts in a week...**

 **I got my inspiration to finally finish a started chapter because my dad actually went to the hospital last night, not for a brain tumor, it's much less severe than that, but being in a hospital kinda put me in the mood to write. Also, I've been in a creative writing class so my technique may get a little better or maybe it won't...idk.**

 **So, I'm going to start responding to reviews, because when other authors do this is makes me want to review, so hoping y'all will review. Love y'all!**

 **sand1128: Well thank you too! And here was another, not Rucas scene, but still a cute scene. :)**

 **Ghost-adventure-lover23: Thanks!**

 **CriminalOutsider-sGirl14: Haha I'm glad you love them!**

 **lilyhur: Sorry that I made you cry, but also its kind of my goal... And thanks!**

 **baylieer2004: oh my gosh my very own hashtag! Never had one of those before! #thanksbae!**

 **Guest: There was three reviews in a row from a guest so I'm gonna assume they were all you, but there is a beginning story 'Stay with Me' that's on my profile. I wish you had an account so I could tell you this sooner!**

 **Rachelwritess7890: Aww I'm glad you like it! Here ya go!**

 **SabrinaHernandez5: Not so soon, but here's an update!**

 **~LittleBitNerdy out, peace out Girl Scouts!**


End file.
